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Spurs Struggle…

After a span of four games in five days, the Spurs escaped Florida with a 1-1 record, losing in Miami, and edging the Magic in overtime, only to return home to drop a stunner to the Kings of Sacramento in a devastating home loss, the first one the season, then going on the road to Houston and dropping another game. Amassing a 1-3 record through those four games, a low for the season, when having a four games and 5 days stretch for the season.

Despite the losses, the Spurs played rather good basketball, losing all three of the game in the final moments, in the case of the Miami game, the Heat amassed 71 points to the Spurs’ 35 in the second half, a blow out by the final score’s appearance, a game that the Spurs wanted to win and gain the confidence of beating the most hyped team in the NBA. but alas, they could not muster up the energy to keep up with the Heat in the second half. An amazing first half to say the least, and it seemed that the Spurs could have put the Heat away had they put up a performance in the second half that was similar in any way to their first half’s performance, but their entire second half was the equivalent of their first quarter, point wise.

The overtime thriller versus Orlando featured a sluggish Spurs team who had just finished having their collective rears handed to them the previous night in Miami, but the Spurs fought strong despite being partially fatigued, the fatigue showed by the end of regulation, both teams barely managed to break 80 with the added time of the overtime period. 75 points is usually attained early in the fourth quarter or late in the third, not at the end of regulation, but luckily for the Spurs, the Magic were struggling as well, as they had just come off a game the previous night as well, and was the first back-to-back loss for the Magic. A tough, well-deserved, first road win for the Spurs team and a much needed moral boost.

The Kings game is one many Spurs fans are ready to forget, as the Kings upset the Spurs at home, stunning them, and handing San Antonio their first home loss of the year, a complete flip of what took place in the previous game, and the absolute last thing the Spurs needed when the next game is an away game, the following night. A demoralizing loss for the Spurs as they played hard but became their own worse enemy in the final minutes of the game.

Finally, on to Houston, now, in this game, the Rockets essentially led the entire way and almost never looked back, but the Spurs hung in the game and kept trading baskets with the Rockets, a strategy that usually never works out for the Spurs as the defense is the focal point of whether they win or lose, in conjunction with the fact that the Spurs live and die by the three point shot. Despite that, the Spurs three point percentage was just over 30 percent, somewhat of a sloppy night of shooting overall in general for the entire team as field goal percentage was 44 percent, still rather high, but when watching the game, the Spurs missed too many shots when they needed the points terribly to enforce a commanding lead against the Rockets.

All four of the games had terribly shooting from the Spurs as a whole, when it comes down to this team, it needs to be an entire team effort, yes there is room for a leader or an individual to steal the show, but the Spurs cannot simply depend on individuals ala Lakers, Clippers, and Heat. The Spurs were close in most of the games as their defense played airtight and made the opponents take bad shots, and have a shooting percentage just as low as theirs, with the exception of the Heat and Rockets who shot 56 and 55 percent respectively.

It was a brutal slate of games for San Antonio, but a day off and much deserved rest is what the Spurs need now, they are spending the night in New Orléans and are ready for tip-off Monday night against the New Orléans Hornets, a game where the team could use it as a moral boost, because the Hornets are not the team they used to be before the dealt Chris Paul away, last place is where they sit in the division, and boast a 3-13 record going into Monday night. The Spurs need to win this game and use it to their advantage, as somewhat of a pallet cleanser and get the rhythm of winning back in their system.